As a signatory to the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, Greenback recently filed an update to its public Climate Action Plan. But, title aside, the plan isn't just about climate, nor is the update.

Katharine Hayhoe is an associate professor of geoscience at Texas Tech, a climate researcher who has suggested the northeastern USA prepare for hotter summers and shorter winters, and the deeply Christian wife of an evangelical preacher. She was invited by Newt Gingrich's co-author to contribute the opening chapter on climate change to an upcoming book on environmental entrepreneurship. Of course, that was before Newt decided to run for the presidency, felt the need to atone for his moment on the couch with Nancy Pelosi, determined that "conservatism" referred to conserving destructive momentum rather than conserving the earth, and spiked Hayhoe's chapter which explained why environmental entrepreneurs were any more valuable than the inventor of the next pet rock or chia head.

This morning, as I prepared to walk from my car to my office, I noticed that I'd parked beside a Honda Civic with a label on its left rear side window. The label bore the word "econ" and a greenish symbol that reminded me of the EPA's official seal. When I looked at it closer, though, there was no explicit EPA tie-in, just the suggestion of one.

Recently, I noted that the Canadian public seems better informed on climate change than their counterparts here in the USA. I brought the contrast up only to debunk the "it's human nature to disbelieve global warming" argument, and my timing was particularly unfortunate in that Canada was announcing its withdrawal from the Kyoto treaty just as I was writing my post.